In 2018, the financial giant Vanguard counted, according to “Wall Street Journal
Among the major shareholders, they are still among the few opponents of the approximately $56 billion compensation package Tesla-Boss Elon Musk. Although Vanguard held 7 percent of the voting rights, the compensation plan attracted a majority of shareholders at the time. Now Vanguard is the largest individual shareholder after Elon Musk to vote for the package and thus made a decisive contribution to Musk’s victory.
In a statement obtained by the Reuters news agency, Vanguard said that the company voted against the compensation package in 2018 because, from the financial giant’s perspective, its amount was not in good proportion to Musk’s performance for the company. But “given the strong alignment of executive pay with shareholder returns since 2018 and the benefits the board has asserted related to the motivational value for the CEO in maintaining the original deal,” the Vanguard-advised funds voted at Tesla’s annual meeting now for it, it says in the message.
Vanguard wanted to make the announcement available to its more than 50 million investors on its own website on Friday. As of March 31, Vanguard owned 232 million Tesla shares, or around 7 percent of the company. Only Musk holds more shares in Tesla with 13 percent.
Musk’s compensation plan was invalidated by a Delaware judge in January, leading to Thursday’s vote. Various voting rights consultants and individual large investors spoke out against the package. However, according to reports, a large number of small shareholders voted for the package. At 77 percent, approval on Thursday was higher than in 2018, when 73 percent of Tesla shareholders supported the package. “We have the greatest investor base,” exclaimed Elon Musk. “I fucking love you guys,” he whipped up the cheering crowd at the annual general meeting in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
Musk had already stated the evening before that a large majority of shareholders wanted to approve the proposals. Tesla shares then rose. The vote was also seen as a referendum on the leadership qualities of the extroverted manager. The Tesla boss said on stage that he was “pathologically optimistic.” Without this optimism, Tesla would not exist. “I still deliver at the end. That’s the most important.”
It is the largest compensation package ever received by a top executive at a US company. Tesla had campaigned massively for a “yes” vote. Executives at the electric car maker published posts on X saying Musk was crucial to Tesla’s success. Tesla ran ads on social media and held factory tours. There were also numerous Tesla fans who had also campaigned for the billion-dollar compensation package before the vote – Last but not least, the German influencer Alexandra Merz (58) with her 125,000 followers, alias @TeslaBoomerMama, tirelessly campaigned for Musk on all channels.
Together with the shares from the compensation package, he would have more than 20 percent of Tesla shares. However, before Tesla can issue shares to Musk, legal experts believe there could be a months-long legal battle. “This matter is not over,” said Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College Law School. At least one shareholder has already filed a lawsuit against the new vote.